Reviews by PersusNine

95

Game of the year? Maybe. But don't bother with GOTY edition.

As many have said this is a pretty radical reboot but in my opinion it is all to the good. Out with the frankly quite weird (and not in a good way) akimbo uzi tiger shooting and in with something a bit more sensible but with a good deal more heart. There is a good bit of cover based shooting but it works, it works thematically and mechanically and it rarely feels completely locked in that cover based shooting is the only way forward. Attempting a more stealthy method or using your acrobatics to flank is generally (although admittedly not always) an option. Most importantly it fits Lara as a character. Deliberately jumping about in the open dodging bullets is for superheroes and madmen.
The plot and characters never gets that involved because this is an action game not an RPG but goodness, Rhianna Pratchett (the lead writer) has packed a lot of subtle character into a few cut scenes and diaries. Every character is believable in a way that you sadly just don't see that often.
This incarnation of Lara Croft is one of the most human videogame characters I've ever played. The nuances of animation is jaw dropping. Don't worry, she is very much still a bad ass but now she is a rather more believable one. This is the game that takes Lara firmly out of the embarrassing late ninety's teenage boy's fantasy and finally fulfils her potential of the character.
The GOTY edition though, yeah... don't bother. The single-player additions are extremely minimal. One tomb that takes quite literally five minutes to investigate and a few character skins that don't fit with the single player story so chances are you won't want to use. The rest is multiplayer focused. Buying multiplayer content for a singleplayer game over a year after release? I can't see that working out too well for you to be honest.

30

Life is too short for bad fan fiction

Max Payne 3 really serves to emphasise the genius of Sam Lake and Remedy.
"But Sam Lake didn't write this instalment and Remedy didn't make it!" you say, "It was written by Dan Houser, Rupert Humphries and Michael Unsworth, and made by Rockstar Vancouver!"
"Exactly." I reply.
This feels like bad Max Payne fan fiction. The shooting is a bit wrong. The writing is a bit wrong. Everything is just a bit wrong. For example, the clever little asides that Max made during the first two games are now replaced by the most ham fisted of player guidance. Nothing is polished and as it should be. The game is better on easy where Max Payne's classic shoot-dodging becomes a viable strategy again and progress is faster because there are fewer enemies but it is never right.
Like others I've had my share of problems with the the horrible Social Club DRM. It never actually locked me out but there is a problem with a disappearing pop-up that I need to re-signin to make reappear and until I do then I'm locked out. Pretty rubbish.
My breaking point was when I switched down to easy difficulty and played for two or three hours before taking a break. When I went back the game loaded me into the point where I'd switched from my no fun medium difficulty game. I'd only been playing for the story so the prospect of doing it again was totally unappealing. So yeah, not a very good game, no manual save option because it is a shitty console port and the autosave is apparently unreliable or broken. Nope. Life is too short. I've played the first two Max Payne games multiple times but this one, I'm not even going to finish once.